St. Jean de Luz, France
One of the advantages of travelling with Lindblad Expeditions is the range, knowledge and experience of the Field Staff on board the ships. Two of the company’s longest ‘serving’ staff are Tom Ritchie and David Barnes, both of whom have written books and both of whom held a light-hearted book-signing event in the lounge following breakfast. It is nice to have a personal memento of someone from the ship who has helped make the journey such an enjoyable and educational event.
This, our last day in France, was also our first day in Basque country. As an introduction to this indigenous people, their history and culture, one of our three historians, Steve Blamires, gave a presentation explaining their unique place in European and world history. However, a few minutes before Steve was about to begin, our eagle-eyed naturalists spotted a pod of Pilot Whales in the waters ahead in the Bay of Biscay. Captain Oliver quickly changed course, slowed the ship down and offered us excellent views of these fascinating creatures which are closer to members of the dolphin family than they are to whales.
Zodiacs took us ashore after lunch to the quaint French Basque town of St Jean de Luz, a small fishing town that looks more like a Mediterranean village rather than one situated in the Bay of Biscay. Local guides led us through the picturesque streets and past the many sidewalk cafes and up-market fashion stores. Others of our group took a short coach ride to the nearby town of Biarritz where they too spent a pleasant afternoon enjoying the distinctly Basque flavour of their destination.
Finally our cultural experience switched again with dinner being a Philipino-style buffet, complete with whole suckling pig! We remained at anchor until 23:30 when National Geographic Explorer headed east towards the Spanish Basque town of Bilbao for tomorrow’s visit to the famous Guggenheim Museum of Contemporary Art.
